Collaboration, diverse environments, interdisciplinary learning, and encouragement are key aspects to adding creativity in schools according to the document. Collaboration between teachers, students, and administrators leads to improved student outcomes. A diverse environment enriches learning and prepares students for the real world. Interdisciplinary classes that combine subjects help students see relationships between disciplines and increase engagement. Encouragement from teachers creates a supportive environment where students feel comfortable taking risks to learn.

1. John Diamandis
English
The definition of creativity is creating something original
and useful. What this means is that creativity is not limited to
the arts, it includes all disciplines. When using this definition
we can see why we would want creativity in our school systems.
The alternative to that would be students who lack the ability to
create anything. The world needs people who can create new
things. This world is built upon it. Imagine if cars, planes or
even cellphones were never invented. Bill Gates said
“Innovation has been and will continue to be the key to
improving the world.” But how do you teach creativity?
Creativity can not be taught. It doesn’t come from a classic
room setting like math or English. In order to add creativity in
schools you need to have collaboration, diverse environment,
interdisciplinary exchange, and encouragement.
Collaboration in schools is not a big topic in the national
education discussion, and that’s unfortunate, because it’s a key
to effective schools. In low-income schools research has shown
that the greatest improvement in student outcomes generally
come from deep collaboration between administrators, teachers,
and students. What this means is that in order for students to be
successful there must be communication between the staff and
the students. Anthony S. Bryk, the president of the Carnegie
Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching identified five
organizational features of schools that is critical in advancing
student achievement, three of which I found to be the most
important. The first stated that that we need a coherent
instructional guidance system where everything including
grades, homework, and tests are graded with meaningful teacher
input. If teachers are actively adding input or advice on
everything that students do it helps to breed more successful
students. The second point Bryk made was that not only should

2. the students be getting input but also the teachers. The teachers
should be collaborating with other staff members to gain
ongoing support and guidance by other colleagues. The third
point was about parental involvement in schools and the parents
working together with the schools to improve on the educational
system. When parents, teachers, and administrators all work
together the outcome is a successful school. When reading
these three points you can see how important collaboration is in
schools.
Diverse environment is also an important aspect to adding
creativity in schools. Many colleges and universities share a
common belief, born of experience, that diversity in their
student bodies, faculties, and staff is important for them to
fulfill their primary mission. Diversity is important because it
enriches the educational experience. We learn from those whose
experiences, beliefs, and views are different from our own, and
these lessons can be taught best in a diverse intellectual and
social environment. Diversity promotes personal growth in
students. It helps to challenge stereotypes, improve critical
thinking, and communication with people of varied
backgrounds. It also strengthens communities and the work
place. Education with a diverse environment prepares students
to become good citizens, fosters respect and teamwork, and it
helps to build communities where people are judged based on
character.
Interdisciplinary exchange is the combining of two or more
disciplines into one academic subject. What this means that
instead of having a biology and chemistry class you have one
class that teaches both and shows you how these two subjects
relate with each other. A largely ignored idea, interdisciplinary
exchange has many benefits to education in schools. It helps
students to use what they learn in collaboration helping them to
be more prepared for the work place. Interdisciplinary can
increase students' motivation for learning and their level of
engagement. In contrast to learning skills in isolation, when
students participate in interdisciplinary experiences they see the

3. value of what they are learning and become more actively
engaged. It also provides the conditions under which effective
learning occurs. Students learn more when they use the
language arts skills to explore what they are learning, write
about what they are learning, and interact with their classmates,
teachers, and members of the community.
Lastly encouragement is the final step in teaching
creativity in schools. Encouragement training changes the way
teachers run their classrooms and relate to students, resulting in
students who are more involved, responsible, and academically
successful. In order to increase encouragement in schools we
must make relationships a priority, carry on respectful dialogue,
practice encouragement and affirmation daily, make decisions
through shared involvement, and resolve conflict. Psychologist
Alfred Adler believed that an educator's most important task is
to see to it that no child is discouraged at school and to
influence any child who enters school discouraged. He believed
that learning is only possible when children look hopefully and
joyfully to the future. Encouragement is necessary in our
schools for students to feel confortable and to learn to their
maximum potential.
Implementing all these changes will be no easy task but it
is definitely possible. In order to add collaboration in schools
teachers just need to be more actively involved with their
students as well as teachers being involved with their colleagues
in order to get beneficial input. Most schools and colleges
already have diverse environments and people of different
ethnic groups but in order to get them to communicate more and
truly learn about each other, schools can add more clubs that
promote students to share their culture. In order to add
interdisciplinary exchange in schools all we have to do is add
extra electives or courses that combine academic subjects of
study. It could even be as simple as a club that helps to teach
how two subjects relate and correlate with each other.
In order to add creativity in schools you need to have
collaboration, diverse environment, interdisciplinary exchange,

4. and encouragement. With these changes implemented in our
schools our students in turn will become more successful and
creative in life. Creativity is a necessity and without it students
would lack the ability to create anything.
John Diamandis
English
Article assignment
During major moments in politics, where do you turn for news?
Increasingly, the answer to that question is social media. Social
media such as Twitter and Facebook provide us with quick
updates that often outshine that of major news sources. Turns
out, that even major new sources are using social media as a
means to provide news quickly to millions of people. Social
media also allows politicians and key players in political
movements to interact with each other and with voters.
Representative Eric Swalwell of California clearly
demonstrated how the use of social media is important. In June
of this year Swalwell made history as being the first
congressmen to use Vine, a mobile app owned by Twitter that
enables its users to create and post short video clips, to vote on
a bill. Swalwell was protesting a bill called the Pain-Capable
Unborn Child Protection Act. The bill would ban abortions after
a fetus is twenty weeks old. The vine was a six second video
that showed him clicking the nay button repeatedly. The vine
gathered quick attention and over two thousand of his followers
saw it almost instantly. Swalwell also used twitter to help
express his viewpoints. On Twitter Swalwell posted that the bill
was part of a "war on women." Of the Vine, he said, "When
House @GOP try to roll back health protections for women, this
is how I vote." Though his vine vote didn’t really change the
outcome of the vote in the House, it still caught the Nations
attention and goes to show how social media and politics are

5. increasingly becoming intertwined.
On June 25th, state Senator Wendy Davis of Texas led
what is being referred to as the first crowd sourced filibuster.
The filibuster protested against an anti-abortion bill and may
have been the first time crowd-participation directly influenced
legislation. Where did Senator Wendy Davis seek out crowd
participation? The answer is Twitter. Senator Davis used
twitter to announce her plan to filibuster. She tweeted “The
leadership may not want to listen to TX women, but they will
have to listen to me. I intend to filibuster this bill.” Her tweet
was retweeted over nine thousand times and on Tumblr her
supporters put out testimonials for her to read during the
filibuster. One of the testimonials posted on Tumblr had over
sixty six thousand reblogs. People also used Twitter, Facebook
and Tumblr to document the situation as it happens. Senator
Davis used social media as a means of interacting with her
voters. Her voters were able to voice their opinions on social
media and be directly heard by Davis. Senator Davis use of
social media helps to show how politicians use social media to
communicate with their supporters.
Most recently, political upheaval in Egypt came to a head on
July 3rd following three days of street protests. President
Mohamed Morsi was overthrown by the Egyptian military, and
to much surprise, most of the conflict played out over social
media. Both President Morsi and the military used Twitter and
Facebook to post statements that were not seen anywhere else at
the same time. Morsi on twitter rejected an order by the army to
resolve a political crisis that has drawn millions of people into
the streets demanding his resignation, calling a deadline set
confusing and saying he would instead pursue
national reconciliation on his own. SCAF, which governs the
military in Egypt, preferred to post updates on Facebook, such
as the terms of the coup. Despite the military overthrow, Morsi
continued to tweet in defiance of the overthrow on a twitter
account verified to be his. An official Facebook page for
President Morsi also posted a status rejecting the military’s

6. coup. This example of the use of social media helps to show
how social media can keep the public updated. News sites from
around the world ended up using the information posted on
Facebook and Twitter because they could not find any other
information on the situation in Egypt as fast. Social Media
played an important role in updating the public and even news
stations on the situation in Egypt.
The reason politicians are using social media to interact with
their constituents is because social media allows one to have
thousands of friends or followers that they wouldn’t normally
have in real life. Social media is built around weak ties. Twitter
and Facebook allow a person to be followed by thousands if not
hundreds of thousands of people they don’t know. This allows
for the spread of news to acquaintances one normally would not
keep up with in their daily lives. There is strength in weak ties
as stated by sociologist Mark Granovetter. “Our acquaintances,
not our friends, are our greatest source of new ideas and
information.” Social Media utilizes this strength by helping
acquaintances keep in touch.
It’s no wonder as to why social media and politics are
continuously becoming more and more intertwined with each
other. Social media is the quickest way to get information
across to millions if not billions of people. Facebook stated that
they now have over a billion active users and Twitter has over
two hundred million active users. It’s no secret that if you want
to get information out there you have to use social media and
politicians know this. In today’s world social media plays a key
role in promoting political movements.